Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Community pharmacy contractors are required under the terms of their contract to give three months' notice of their intention to withdraw. This is a serious obligation to ensure continuity of dispensing services to patients.

The HSE has written to each of the contractors concerned, seeking formal confirmation of their intentions and pointing out that three months' notice of cessation of service is required. As of now, only two contractors have given formal notification of termination in accordance with the requirements in the contract.

The HSE has been obliged to develop a national contingency planning framework which will inform and provide direction to local operational management for the development of local area-specific contingency plans. As service provision, geographical and demographic circumstances will vary from area to area, each local health area is developing its own area-specific contingency plan within the context of the overall national framework.

However, I emphasise that it is the Minister's and the Government's earnest hope such contingency arrangements will not prove necessary and a withdrawal of services by pharmacists will not take place. The process engaged in by the Dorgan group is under way, as the IPU can attest, and it offers a real prospect of a way forward in this dispute.

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